METONYMY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Metonymy

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noun

Metonymy n. (Rhet.) A trope in which one word is put for another that suggests it; as, we say, a man keeps a good table instead of good provisions; we read Virgil, that is, his poems; a man has a warm heart, that is, warm affections; a city dweller has no wheels, that is, no automobile.

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Etymology of 'Metonymy'

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Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Metonymy" Quotes from Famous Books

... the alert, like a sentinel fearing surprise. Of this an essay might be filled with illustrations. He does not try to use figures, but can not keep from using them. As stars flash into light, so he flashes into metaphor, metonymy, trope, personification, or simile. Because he sees everything, is he fertile in suggestion, and his comparisons are numerous as his thoughts. See how his figures multiply as you have seen foam-caps multiply on waves when the wind rises on ...

— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle

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... a valley). The use of the word in this sense points to an African origin of this version of the story. The Moors of Africa and Spain commonly called a river "a valley," by a natural figure of metonymy substituting the container for the contained; e.g. Guadalquiver (Wadi el Kebir, ...

— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne

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... ibn Rabah was the Prophet's freedman and crier: see vol. iii. 106. But bilal also signifies "moisture" or "beneficence," "benefits": it may be intended for a double entendre but I prefer the metonymy. ...

— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

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Words linked to "Metonymy" : figure of speech, image, metalepsis, metonymical, figure